My dear Sir
It was very good of you to give up so much of your time to write to me your last interesting letter.2 The evidence seems good about the tameness of the alpine Butterflies, & the fact seems to me very surprising; for each butterfly can hardly have acquired its experience during its own short life.— Will you be so good as to thank M. Humbert for his note, which I have been glad to read.3 I formerly received from a man, not a naturalist staying at Cannes, a similar account, but doubted about believing it.4 The case, however, does not answer my query, viz whether Butterflies are attracted by bright colours, independently of the supposed presence of nectar.
I must own that I have great difficulty in believing that any temporary condition of the parents can affect the offspring. If it last long enough to affect the health or structure of the parents, I can quite believe the offspring would be modified. But how mysterious a subject is that of generation! Although my hypothesis of pangenesis has been reviled on all sides,5 yet I must still look at generation under this point of which; & it makes me very averse to believe in an emotion having any effect on the offspring.
Allow me to add one word about blushing & shyness: I intended only to say that the habit was primordially acquired by attention to the face; & not that each shy man now attended to his personal appearance.—6
With sincere thanks, believe me, yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8741,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on